The Shift that Changes Everything | LIVE Global Immersion in Collective Presence with Eckhart Tolle

Welcome, everyone, to today's live online event, the Shift that changes Everything. In just a few moments, we're going to be joined by Eckhart, who I know many of you know is widely recognized as one of the most visionary teachers of our time. Eckhart's also the author of the international bestsellers the Power of Now and A New Earth. And he has literally introduced millions of people across the world to the joy, peace, and freedom of living life in the present moment. My name is Sybil, and on behalf of Eckhart Teachings and Sounds True, I want to thank each and every one of you for coming tonight and attending this session. We're just so honored to have so many people from all over the world joining us. And before we get started, I just wanted to mention that part of the inspiration for tonight's talk comes from an online program that we're doing with Eckhart called Doorways into how to Quiet your mind and Live in the Now. Have you ever wondered what it's like to live a day in presence like Eckhart? This was a question all of us were asking ourselves, the team here at Eckhart Teachings and Sounds True. And we're like, I think there's so many other folks who are asking that too, like, how does Eckhart actually live in the now every single day? Many of us want to be present as we move through the day and feel all the freedom and peace that stems from the present moment. But how do you actually do that, right? Like, especially when life throws you challenges or problems, or it's just the general busyness of the day that can be so distracting? Well, this new online program with Eckhart shows us how Eckhart is going to be guiding a community of students through 14 experiences so we can learn how to use our everyday moments differently and build what Eckhart calls presence power. And when you make this shift and live in the now, each day, it changes everything. We're able to quiet our minds and continually experience the dimension of stillness that's always available. We're very much looking forward to this and the upcoming program with Eckhart. And we hope you'll all join us too, with a lot of students from all over the world. Also today, we're offering a special teaching bonus. When you sign up, after you enroll, you'll receive a collection called Living Free from Stress and Anxiety. It includes three of Epcot's most popular audio programs, the Secret of Happiness, the Joy of Being, and Freedom from the World. We wanted to give everyone the opportunity to Listen to these special teachings and prepare for the program that Eckhart's going to be guiding us through, called Doorways to Presence. So in addition to receiving a special discount when you sign up today, you'll also get these teachings when you enroll. And if you're interested, you can find out more about the program and register@eckhart tolle.com and I'll also be able to give you some additional information about the program at the end of the event this evening. And now, without further ado, please allow me to introduce and welcome our friend and guide for tonight's talk, Eckhart Tolle. Eckhart, welcome.

Thank you, Sebillian. And hello everybody. Welcome to the present moment. I'd like this session to be. To become for you an actual experiential realization. What presence is so not just talking about presence, but being present, sensing the presence. So that presence that you can sense is in between the words behind the words. It's behind all sense perceptions. It makes all sense perceptions possible. It's behind all thinking. It makes thinking possible. It's behind all emotion. It's what makes emotion possible. But in itself, it transcends all these things. It is inseparable from sensory perception, thinking and emotions, but also transcends those. It is likely that you have encountered presence and you do from time to time, or perhaps quite often encounter presence without recognizing it for what it is. It could just be a moment when you feel at ease. You feel a sense of well being, sense of peaceful aliveness. Not because you have desensitized yourself, not because you've taken some substances, not because you're about to fall asleep, not because there's a lowering of your consciousness. No, it's a heightened consciousness. Thinking, of course, is a manifestation of consciousness. Emotions are manifestation of consciousness. Sense perceptions could not exist without consciousness. So we are talking about, when we use presence, we're talking about the essence of what you are, which is consciousness, the light of consciousness. One could say this vast consciousness that is universal consciousness, it's not only within you, it is also without. It is the, one could say, the intelligence that underlies all phenomenal manifestations of the universe. There's a hidden, conceived, hidden, vast intelligence that gives rise to the evolution of all life forms. Impossible for us to understand it, but we can sense it within ourselves as the essence of our being. So the easiest way to point to presence, to say that you counter it when you stop thinking for a moment without losing consciousness. Stop thinking means the continuous voice in the head that usually comments on what's going on around you, or comments on all kinds of things, imaginary scenarios and so on. The conditioned voice in the head that you live with. Everybody lives with that voice in their head that talks all the time inside. Or if it talks aloud at you, then you're considered crazy. People say, there's people walking in the streets, talking out loud. And you say, oh, they are mentally insane. But the only difference between a normal human being and those people that you call mentally insane is that those who do not call mentally insane, they're still doing the same thing. They're just not talking out aloud. It's happening in their head. It's a continuous stream of thinking. And that creates the ego, the egoic sense of self. If an ultimately fictitious identity that you are infinitely more than the entity created by the movement of thought and the emotions that reflect the movement of thought. There's infinitely more to you than what you conventionally call the person. Person is the conditioned entity, a form that consciousness has taken. And most humans, unless they are awakening already spiritually, which is what we are talking about, the arising of presence is spiritual awakening. Unless you are awakening. And many of you are awakening, even if you don't, don't have words for it. Many of you are here because you're awakening. Otherwise it would. What? This session would be totally meaningless to you. There may be a few to whom it is totally meaningless. What is this guy talking about? So he must have had a glimpse of what it is that I'm talking about. And if you haven't, perhaps you can have it now. And that glimpse is the possibility of arriving at the briefly, at first, the cessation of thinking. The voice in the head stops. And yet consciousness remains. And you can look around or look at your. Look at this image on the screen or look around the room, take everything in, but you're not thinking about it. You just. It's just sensory perception. And what is behind the sensory perception? Presence. Another word for it is awareness. So there's an awareness that is perceiving at this moment. And that awareness is silent, but it's awake. And that awareness is the deeper dimension to who or what you are. That's no longer the person that you usually think of. When you say I, there's a deeper I, a deeper sense of being that transcends the personal sense of identity. So you can sense there's an awareness in you, a consciousness. And that consciousness is perceiving. It doesn't need to interpret it. It knows at a very deep level, but not conceptually. You can look around your room or wherever you are. You know that there's furniture, whatever there is, but you don't call it anything, you just allow it to be. So there is instead of a person perceiving things, which is when you are always interpreting, commenting and labeling. Mentally, instead of a person, you're now perceiving, not as a person, you're perceiving as an awareness. So there's a shift from personal sense of self shift to a deeper level. You could call it deeper or higher, doesn't matter. To a deeper level of consciousness where you are not a person. You are that which is prior to the person. And that's awareness, presence. And that's amazing. You can then be aware of that awareness. You can sense this presence that you are in addition to whatever you're perceiving. It's in the background of your sense perceptions, the background of your life. There's a spacious, vast presence that connects you to something that we cannot really define or talk about. It's deep and it's infinite. It's the soul. It's not just the depth of your being. It connects you to the very soul of the universe. The ancients, ancient Romans and Greeks had this wonderful term, anima mundi, Latin for the soul of the world. There is such a thing as a world soul, and that is your. Your soul presence, the consciousness that you are, is a ray or a spark of that, inseparable from the soul of the totality. So it's a liberation from the ego itself, liberation on the self. And then life becomes more harmonious. When you begin to invite that consciousness into your life, that presence, your life begins to flow with greater ease, more harmoniously. Not that you're not challenged anymore. Challenges continue, but all the challenges do. Once you begin to awaken to presence challenges, then deepen your presence. In fact, you need the difficulties in your life to deepen your presence. As you begin to awaken. Any challenge will deepen your presence. In the early stages, it could also happen. The challenges take you completely out of presence. When you encounter difficult situations, or people can take you totally out of presence. But gradually, as you become a bit more established, rooted in their presence, the opposite happens. Challenges don't make you unconscious, they make you more conscious. So in a nutshell, presence is awareness without thought. And then thinking becomes a more helpful tool rather than something that torments you. For many people, their thinking mind torments them continuously. They have an unhappy sense of self. They talk to themselves using unhappy words. They talk about other people using unhappy words. Good concepts. And they confuse what the voice in the head with actual reality out there. They can't tell the difference between what is and the way in which they interpret what is, which is the conditioning of the mind. When you come to an alignment with what is, which is always now, life becomes easier. Not free of challenges, but much easier. And challenges don't produce unhappiness anymore. That's a big thing. And the difficulties of your life don't make you unhappy anymore. Amazing. I believe there are a few questions that people have submitted. Want to ask? I don't know if there are questions left. Seville, you have some.

I do. I have questions that people submitted prior to the session. And the first one we wanted to ask you was from Randy in New York. And Randy's question, Eckhart, is if you could choose only one practice to bring about the greatest impact of presence in your life, what would it be?

Great. Wonderful question. Thanks. One practice that's not complicated at all. You don't need time to master it. This practice, it does not take time. Obviously, if a practice of presence take time, it's not really working very well, is it? So the most simple, direct practice is to be aware of your breath, to be aware of your breathing, for example. Now to be aware of it, your breathing. No, before I just said that it's very, very likely that you were not aware of your breathing unless you knew already what this great practice is. But the moment I said it, your awareness, you went to your breath and you can feel the air moving into the body and out of the body. And so to speak, you follow it with your attention. You follow the air with your attention as it goes in and out. That is the most direct and simplest practice for being present. I'm not the first person to come up with that. Somebody called the Buddha already talked about it. 2,500 years ago. It was called Anapanasati. Yoga is the practice of the ingoing and outgoing breath. Ingoing and outgoing breath, awareness. Now, the breathing is always there. Most of the time you're not conscious of it. When you direct consciousness to your breathing, something very interesting happens. It slows down or completely eliminates your thinking. And there's only an awareness of your breath. So if you want to, if you're being tortured by your thoughts, as many people are, and many people don't even know that they're tortured by your thoughts. They think they're being tortured by life, whatever their life situation is. So dreadful. My life. My life is so difficult and complicated and I can't just can't stand it anymore. This is tr. And then the, the narrative continues and continues, continues. And you think that's your life, not knowing that it's a narrative in your mind, it's not your life. To confuse a narrative in your mind with your life is a fundamental, very dreadful error, but very, very common. Has anybody taught you that at school or university? Probably not. The most fundamental knowledge, not to confuse a narrative in your mind with your life. Because your life isn't a narrative in your mind. It's always now. It is never not now. This is most fundamentally your life is now. Not the narrative of past and future. That is helpful for practical purposes, but no more than that. Not to give you an identity. That's a fictitious identity. Your true identity is rooted in the power of the present moment, the power of now. Be aware of your breathing. You don't even have to control it. There are certain meditation practices that have a very structured way of approaching your breath. And you can change the length of your breath, you can count your breaths, you can do all kinds of things, that's fine. Or meditation practices, but the simplest thing is no matter where you are and you don't even have to say, okay, I'm going to meditate now, it's fine. I love meditation, but I sometimes make fun of it a little bit. And he said, then you enter totally different okay, now it's time to meditate for 10 minutes throughout your life, wherever you are, be aware of your breathing whenever you can. It creates an inner spaciousness because when you're aware of your breathing, you can't do much thinking. And most of the thinking, as you may know or maybe it's news to you, most of your thinking is not only unnecessary but actually very harmful. It creates all kinds of pseudo problems. Well, the mind is telling you it's working on solving your problems. It's actually regurgitating old narratives, not real problem. There is such a thing as focused application of the mind that's of thinking. Thinking ability becomes enhanced when there is a presence behind it. So when you have an actual real problem to solve in your life, approach it not only with your thinking mind, but also with the cessation of thinking. You can continue step back from thinking into stillness. And you, if you want to use your breath to access the stillness, it's a good portal. Be aware of your breathing. So first, these are the problems. When I have something to think about, I usually, because I'm old fashioned, I have a notepad and a pen and if I have to think about some. What are the. What can I do in this situation? What are the solutions? I start writing down possibilities. Example, these people, modern humans like you, you probably use some device, I don't know what you do on keyboard, whatever. So you write down, what is it that I can do in this? What can I do to solve this if it's an actual problem? Because many things that humans come up with in your mind are not actual problems. They imaginary problems, constructs. If there's an actual problem, okay, action needs to be taken. What is it that I can do? Write down this, this, this. And then you run out of ideas, and then it's time to become still, be aware of your breathing. You don't need to close your eyes. You can, but it's not necessary to be aware of your breathing because you can be aware of your breathing. And there's still enough awareness left to be aware of your surroundings. If you want to focus more deeply on your breathing, you can close your eyes and then really focus on your breathing. But I say even one conscious breath makes a difference in your life. If you take that one conscious breath several times during the day. What do I mean by one conscious breath? It's one conscious in and out breaths. How long does that take? I don't know. Maybe. Let's see. I'm doing it. Conscious breath goes like this. That was it. In and out, 10 seconds, maybe. Doesn't matter. And that's one conscious press. What does it do? It creates a gap in your stream of thinking. A stillness, a presence arises that has always been there, is always there underneath, always thinking. So presence doesn't. Is not something that you need to achieve or attain. It's something that you discover because it's already there. So you can't really work hard to become present because it's already there. This is why in some traditions, people say, well, you are already enlightened and the person. What are you talking about? My life is a complete mess. How can I be enlightened? All my relationships are in shambles. How can I'm not enlightened? Well, underneath all that mental noise and emotional turmoil, there is a presence, there is a deeper consciousness. So the simplest practice is to be aware of your breath. And even if it's only one conscious breath, but taken many times during the day, whenever you remember. And you might want to take two or three instead of one. Even better, two or three conscious breaths while you're on your computer on your keyboard. Okay, stop for a moment. One or two or three conscious breaths or Just, just observe that you're breathing. Just, just direct your attention there. It's your breathing. You are breathing. There's no doubt about it, you're breathing. So just observe that you're breathing. Breathing happens to you, you're not doing it. But for most people, thinking is the same. Thinking happens to them. They're not doing it. They have no control at all what their mind does. They have no awareness. So thinking happens to them in the same way that breathing happens to them. But this doesn't have to breathing. That. Yes, that always happens. Something in you want to live and it's breathing. It wants you to live in this incarnation and that's why you're breathing. And no matter how unhappy you are, you cannot kill yourself by stopping breathing. You won't be able. Nobody's ever committed suicide by stopping your breath, holding their breath. Something in you does not want to commit suicide. It wants to, to come to the end of your incarnation now, naturally. And only the silly person wants to commit suicide. So get in touch with that in you that does not want to commit. It is not unhappy. The presence is not unhappy. The awareness is not unhappy. So the simplest practice, be aware of your breathing. Now that can lead you into the next practice that they closely connected. The other practice is to be aware of the inner energy field of your body when you're breathing. That connects you almost inevitably with the inner energy field of your body because you breathe into. And if you can feel that you're breathing into as deep as the abdomen without doing no effort, it's just happening. Don't make an effort, it's just happening. You're breathing and your attention follows the breath as deep as the abdomen belly, although the air probably doesn't go there. But your attention goes with the breath. And from there you can sense an energy spreading out throughout your body, an inner energy field. It pervades the body. I call it inner body awareness. That's also an ancient meditation practice, if done in a more structured way. Here it's called vipassana, or going back. Also probably taught by the Buddha too, and by Jesus. We only have fragments of his teachings. He talks about the possibility that your, your whole body can be full, full of light. That's what he's talking about. So in our body awareness, to sense the inner energy field of your body and breath awareness are closely related. And sometimes breath awareness inevitably could connect you to the inner energy field of the body body, and then they merge into one practice. You're aware of your breathing and you're aware of that your body is pervaded by a sense of aliveness. That is the intelligence that inhabits your body. It. It transcends who or what you are as a person. You feel intensely alive. Not in. Not in an excited way, in a calm way. So there's breath awareness and inner body awareness. They merge into one. Let's see if there are any other questions.

We have a question from Southern California from Tam Epgarten. She says she loves all of the tools that you've given so far and it's been really, really helpful throughout her entire life. And there's times where some situations happen and it just becomes really overwhelming. What's your best advice to help become present when we do have these overwhelming times and it just feels like it's too much to bear and none of the regular practices of presence are working. When you see or hear something that's extremely upsetting or you just feel totally overwhelmed and consumed in unconsciousness in the moment. Recently it felt like all the wonderful tools that were helping so far didn't help in moments of overwhelm and stress and probably, probably deep unconsciousness. What would be your advice to help pull me back to consciousness when that happens?

Thank you. We probably need to differentiate between different things here. There is such a thing as emergency situations. Emergency situations in your life that require an immediate response. You're being attacked by a wild animal or a crazy human, or your house is on fire or there's an earthquake. All these things are happening more and more these days. By the way, as you probably know, for many people actually, emergencies happen and they require an immediate. When this happens, there is no time to think about how can I be present. The emergency can either cause you to become. To enter a state of panic and extreme, where panic is extreme fear. It's also possible that an emergency makes you very present itself. It. One can have one either one or the other effect on you. It can make you panicky and fearful, or it can make you intensely alert. And out of that alertness comes whatever response is required in that situation. Not no thinking is involved in an emergency situation. If you're present. If you're. If the emergency forces you into absolute presence, then there is. It's not a practice. You can't say, I'm your house is on fire and say, okay, now, now I need to practice presence. No, but it may be that the emergency itself creates this intense presence in you. And then an intelligence operates in you and causes you to take right action for that moment, Whatever that may be. It is not Premeditated. And it does not come from the conditioning of your mind, accumulated conditioning of your mind so you're not reacting in some old predictable way. When you are present, it is more likely should you encounter an emergency situation, but you have been practicing presence in your daily life beforehand. It is your chances of staying present and experiencing an intensification of presence when an emergency happens is much greater. It is. In other words, it is more likely when you've been practicing presence already. In normal situations in your life, when a true emergency happens, that presence will become very intense. And that means immediately it will take action through you and you will do just the right thing for. For that situation. Nobody can predict what that might be. So sometimes people think people, you've probably heard of accounts of people who have performed heroic actions, maybe they have saved other people heroic things. And they. And when they later ask, what did you. How did. You're so brave, how could you do that? And they say, I couldn't help. I just did it. I couldn't help it. There was no thinking involved. It just happened. I did it. And when this happens, also you don't take credit for it. If you save somebody's life because it just. The action then happens through you. A greater intelligence, one could say, acts through you. It takes action. So you're more likely to be prepared. You will be prepared for true emergencies if you have been practicing presence because the presence power has been growing in you. So you will not be paralyzed, for example, by an emergency. Some people are. They're either paralyzed or they go into intense mode of panic. And it's not likely that what they panic will lead to really intelligent and effective action. They will probably do the wrong thing. That makes the situation even worse or gets them killed. That's panic. So presence, practicing of presence is a good preparation should life present you with an enormous challenge. An immediate an emergency that needs to be dealt with immediately. So. So that the emergency does not overwhelm you. You can face it, that's one thing. But there's another form of overwhelm that's to do with the thinking mind. So you have some problems in your life, or maybe a succession of problems. That's why you become overwhelmed. You have several problems. Not emergent absolute emergencies, but difficulties in your life. Somebody goes to you, dies, and you lose your job the next day. And then you get home the following day and your wife has left you or your husband left you or whatever. Many things suddenly come, I can't take it anymore. I'm so over. Well, okay. So here we're talking somewhat different situation from the actual immediate emergency. This overwhelm is produced by the thinking mind trying to find some kind of coping with impossible, seemingly impossible situations that you cannot actually do anything about right now. At some point we can take action to solve situations, but right now, because it's not an emergency. So right now you just have all these problems arising in your life. Here's your My investments have collapsed. If you had any. My bank account is empty. I can't pay my rent, can't stand it. All these things are could lead to overwhelm. But what is the overwhelm? Is the thinking mind creating havoc in your mind. Oh my God, I can't take anymore. What can I do? My life has come to an end, I can't cope with it. Etc and there you need to take action. And here again, a preparation for that. Should it happen that in your life you are faced with several problems occurring in a short space of time. To practice presence in your daily life again is a wonderful preparation for coping with a series of problems that may arise in a short space of time in your life. So that's why it's very important to practice presence when things are going relatively okay. So that what I call presence, power grows in you. And as presence power grows in you when these situations happen, you are able to take your attention out of the chaotic thinking mind and bring your attention into, into the present moment in whatever way through your breathing or your awareness. But don't believe your mind when it tells you, I can't do it now. I can't. I've got. I need to think about my problems. I can't, I can't do presence now. It's impossible. This, this thought is a lie. If you have been practicing presence and then you have this thought that says like I'm doing. No, there's no pointing from the tempo. You don't believe in every thought that comes into your mind. That's another great practice. Don't believe in every thought that comes into your mind. Your thought says, I can't do it now. There's no point. Of course you can take a conscious breath. There's nobody who cannot take a conscious breath. If you decide to take a conscious breath and if you don't believe your mind that tells you you can't do it, then you take a conscious breath. On a practical level, physical movement helps. If you feel overwhelmed, go out into nature and breathe consciously there and take in your surroundings. Nature is a very healing thing. When your life is especially when your life is becoming chaotic, go into nature. Even if you live in a city, there will be nature somewhere. Maybe you have a backyard, maybe you have this big park where you can go. There will be nature somewhere. You can get out of the city even better. So you go into nature and nature can help you become present. It's more easy, it's easier to be present in nature than to be present in a city. Once presence power grows in you, it makes hardly any difference. Or you may still have a preference for nature, but you can be as present in a city too. But in the early stages of presence arising in you, nature is very helpful. So when life becomes a burden to you, then go into nature and bring your attention to your sense perceptions and your breathing. Be there fully and it can liberate you to some extent. It liberates you from this mental overwhelm. This was perhaps the interesting story from my early life. When I was a child, I was. I didn't have a happy childhood. Well, there were some happy moments, yes. In fact, this is what I'm going to talk about now. On the whole, my life, my whole life was not happy because my family environment was chaotic and a lot of screaming and anger and horrible. My parents meant well, but they were in the grip of their own unconscious conditioning. They couldn't help it. So I was not happy there. Very unhappy at school too. So I carried this unhappiness. And at some, I don't know how old I was, maybe 10, I got a bicycle for Christmas. So I was able to get out of the city. It wasn't. It was a medium sized city. So I got, took like 15 minute bike ride and I would be out. It wasn't grand nature like just corn fields and hedges and trees and little groves, but it was nature. So I got out of the city many times on my bike. And the moment I reached nature I felt so much better. And there was one thought that repeated itself every time I did this. It repeated itself in my mind in that thought that I didn't fully understand what it meant. I just thought that this will always be here, this will always be here, this will always be here. And for this referred to nature. So I had this intuitive realization. There's a human made world which was the world of unhappiness for me. And there was the natural world which represented the liberation from unhappiness. And it represented well, being and harmony. So that's my first but. But that was my first spiritual experience in life was that occurred many, many times. So nature Is wonderful in a way you could. People may not realize the world that you inhabit consists primarily of human made things and natural things. You can divide all your sensory perceptions into human made things that surround you. All the things, furniture, cars, buildings, utensils, everything human made. And then you have nature. Even as I sit here in my room, I can see all the human made things. And then there's nature here, look out of the window. There's trees, nature. And I've got some plants here, potted plants. There's a human made world and there's a plant and there's another one behind me. It's a rubber plant that is. And that's natural. And it's interesting to see that you have these two dimensions, the human made things and the natural things. And then of course, there's always the sky. Sky's all. Even if you're in the middle of a huge city, you can't see a single tree. There's still. The sky is still there. And the sky is a beautiful thing that actually can represent the inner consciousness. This is why Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven, which in my translation is the dimension of spaciousness, which is an inner dimension, which is presence. So Jesus talking about the kingdom of heaven dimension. Kingdom of heaven, vast spaciousness is the inner spaciousness of presence. Buddha talked about sunyata, usually translated as emptiness. But a better translation is spaciousness again as an inner state. A realization of this inner dimension all pointing to that it all comes together. It's all. There's only one truth. One true teaching comes in just different forms. So overwhelm, there actually emergencies and then there's the overwhelm by your mind and that you can do something about and get ready for it. Because we all get challenged and we're living in a time when collectively humanity is going to be challenged more and more. So there will be challenges that affect every one of us. There have already been some and there are some now collective challenges. So you're either prepared for them or you're not. If you're not prepared, you become very unhappy and you won't be able to cope. But if you're prepared, the challenges that humanity is facing will be an inseparable part of the awakening of humanity. Humans don't awaken, even other life forms don't awaken unless they are challenged deeply. That is part of the evolution of consciousness. So it's all good. What looks bad on the surface from a deeper, higher perspective is all good and it all makes sense. Be ready for the challenges in life it's incredibly important to grow in presence, so to speak, so that presence power can manifest itself more fully through you. Presence, Presence itself is timeless, of course, but your ability to become a vessel for presence, a conduit for presence that grows in time. Because here we inhabit the dimension of time and yet presence is the transcendent dimension that is timeless.

Eckhart along those lines, the final question. As you know, the title of tonight's event is the shift that changes Everything. The final question we wanted to ask you this evening is what is that shift that changes everything and why is it essential right now for humanity to undergo this shift?

Right, thank you. So I've already started kind of already started talking about that question before you asked it. So it's the awakening, to use that term. You may. The term awakening has been around for thousands of years. Buddha, the word Buddha means the one who is awake. Buddha means being awake. Jesus talked quite often about staying awake. It's misunderstood. In most churches Jesus said to a literal quote from this is probably one of the fragments that he actually truly said. I can't remember what gospel it is from said and what I say to you, I say to all stay awake. That's Jesus. Buddha is the one who is awake. When people ask Buddha who or what are you? He said I'm awake. So what is that awake? Awake is. They have gone through this shift in consciousness from the egoic consciousness that is totally identified with the thinking function to a deeper or higher consciousness. I usually prefer the term deeper but higher is fine too. A deeper consciousness that transcends all this so that you find a deeper sense of identity than the one that is based on your personal history. For most people, their sense of identity, who there is based on their personal history and however they interpret their personal history. Their personal history is a narrative they tell themselves, a story they tell themselves and they call it my life. It's very to very limiting and ultimately very frustrating because this, this narrative is never fully at ease. It's always, it's a lot of the time it's an unhappy narrative sense of identity, it's a burden that people carry. It's the egoic sense of self. It creates problems where problems didn't exist before. It creates dysfunction as reflected also collectively in world history. Read the history of the 20th century, first half especially, but any history of oh my, this is insane. Millions, I can't remember. Nobody knows exactly how many humans were killed by other humans in the 20th century alone. Hundreds of millions. And that's collect. That's the the manifestation on the collective level of. Of this unconsciousness. So unless we now we have created enormous technologies which can amplify the dysfunction of the egoic mind. It's already been doing that so that it amplifies the egoic madness. And if we do don't transcend the egoic state of consciousness to a higher deep state of consciousness, we are going to kill ourselves. Because it's just the technology amplifies the mental dysfunction that humans have been carrying for thousands of years. It wasn't so bad in the past. The people had only got. They had all these souls to kill each other. And then the technology grew and grew and grew. And now we have confronted with the digital technology, which to a large extent also amplifies the dysfunction of the human mind or what people do on Facebook. Many, not everybody can. You can use it consciously too, but millions of people are using it to simply to amplify their egoic sense of self. The image that they want to create of who they are. It's some fictitious image. And now through technology they can project this image to the outward world using of course, lots of filters. So they look. Everybody looks beautiful with all the filters they can apply to their Facebook pages. Even I could look beautiful if I filter supply. Oh, everybody looks so great and everybody looks so happy. And it's all fiction. So you have an externalization of the human ego through the technology. We can talk about this for a long time, but there's no need here and now. But to see there is enormous amount of dysfunction in the e. Human mind that we need this. All the ancient traditions talked about that already. The human mind has great possibilities, but it's. It has a. An inbuilt fundamental dysfunction. The Buddha called it dukkha. Suffering you always, wherever you go, you'll find you encounter suffering. Is it Unless you wake up. And in Jesus terms, it's called sin. Sin means really missing the mark of human existence. That's the original translation of the word sin in the New Testament is to miss the mark. So you miss the purpose of your life. That's sin. The purpose of your life is to awaken as a human being, to become more conscious, to awaken to this consciousness. There is no other purpose to your life than this awakening. All the others are secondary purposes. Yes. On a personal level, you have secondary purposes in your personal life. Everybody has different personal purposes, but they must be aligned with the greater purpose, which is to live more consciously, to awaken to this new consciousness. These are the ancient teachings have all spoken of already. Spoken about this, but for the first time, I would say, in the history of humanity. Is the awakening now a. An absolute necessity rather than a kind of luxury. So in the past, a few humans here and there, not many of them we never heard of. There have been humans always awakened humans in history, but it has never been an absolute necessity for humanity to. To go through this shift in consciousness. But now, unless we go through the shift in consciousness, we are undoubtedly going to destroy ourselves. So this is why it's so vital. But the strange thing is we need this, we need this crisis. The evolution of consciousness needs this crisis. So it's not a bad thing, it's actually a necessary thing to be facing this crisis. And because that is a. That can. That will bring about the awakening, then we begin to inhabit a different world. Not a world totally free of challenges, but not the havoc that we are creating at the moment, which is all. Whatever world humans create is a manifestation of their underlying state of consciousness. It cannot be otherwise. And so with the only thing that what is threatening us is the human mind, the dysfunction of the human mind, it's within. Isn't there no external enemies? Ultimately, the true enemy lies within. So that's what it is all about. So the shift in consciousness is now absolutely necessary. But it is also more available and somehow, I would say, easier to realize than it has been in the past. That's a good thing. It is more accessible and easier to realize than it has been in the past. But be ready. Big challenges are coming and either they will bring about your awakening or they will make you very, very unhappy, to say the least. So it's a wonderful thing that, that this possibility of human awakening, this is the essence of our age. The age we live in is a deep crisis leading to the awakening of human conscious. And it all comes back to where we started this moment. Presence is called presence because it's inseparable from the present moment. That's why it's called presence Intense. They are some fictitious image. And now through technology, they can project this image to the outward world using, of course, lots of filters. So they look. Everybody looks beautiful with all the filters they can apply to their Facebook pages. Even I could look beautiful if I filter supply. Oh, everybody looks so great and everybody looks so happy. And it's all fiction. So you have the externalization of the human ego through the technology. We can talk about this for a long time, but there's no need here and now. But to see there is enormous amount of dysfunction in the human mind that we need this, all the ancient traditions talked about that already. The human mind has great possibilities, but it has an inbuilt from the mental dysfunction. The Buddha called it dukkha. Suffering you always, wherever you go, you'll find counter suffering, he said, unless you wake up. And in Jesus terms it's called sin. Sin means really missing the mark of human existence. That's the original translation of the word sin in the New Testament is to miss the mark. So you miss the purpose of your life. That's sin. The purpose of your life is to awaken as a human being, to become more conscious, to awaken to this consciousness. There is no other purpose to your life than this awakening. All the others are secondary purposes. Yes, on a personal level you have secondary purposes in your personal life. Everybody has different personal purposes, but they must be aligned with the greater purpose, which is to live more consciously, to awaken to this new consciousness. These are, these are the ancient teachings have all spoken already spoken about this, but for the first time, I would say in the history of humanity is the awakening now a. An absolute necessity rather than a kind of luxury. So in the past, a few humans here and there, not many of them we never heard of. There have been humans always awakened humans in history, but it has never been an absolute necessity for humanity to go through this shift in consciousness. But now, unless we go through the shift in consciousness, we are undoubtedly going to destroy ourselves. So this is why it's so vital. But the strange thing is we need this, we need this crisis. The evolution of consciousness needs this crisis. So it's not a bad thing, it's actually a necessary thing to be facing this crisis. And because that is that can that will bring about the awakening. Then we begin to inhabit a different world. Not a world totally free of challenges, but not the havoc that we are creating at the moment, which is all. Whatever world humans create is a manifestation of the underlying state of consciousness. It cannot be otherwise. And so with the only thing that what is threatening us is the human mind, the dysfunction of human mind. It's within. Isn't there no external enemies? Ultimately the true enemy lies within. So that's what it is all about. So the shift in consciousness is now absolutely necessary, but it is also more available and somehow I would say easier to realize than it has been in the past. That's a good thing. It is more accessible and, and easier to realize than it has been in the past. But be ready. Big challenges are coming and either they will bring about your awakening or they will make you very, very unhappy. To say the least. So it's a wonderful thing that, that this possibility of human awakening, that is the essence of our age, the age we live in is a deep crisis leading to the awakening of human conscious. And it all comes back to where we started, this moment. Presence is called presence because it's inseparable from the present moment. That's why it's called presence. Intense present moment awareness. Of course, you remember the past when necessary. You can plan for the future when necessary. Fine. But otherwise, the focus of your life is present moment. Then everything shifts. Just this. This is all there ever is. Actually, there is nothing else ever. So you might as well recognize it. Present moment awareness, that's all there ever is. This is your life, not the memories or future projections. This is your life. Your life is now. It's never not now. So you become a friend of the now, friendly with now. Wow. You wake up into the now, so to speak. Wow. And no longer carry this heavy burden of the. This exclusively. The personal sense of self, the heaviness of the self. Buddha talked about the fiction of the self, the illusion of the self, the man. The mind made itself with its heaviness. Of course it's still there, but you're not trapped in it anymore. You're still a person. But there's more to you than the person. And you can sense that there's more to you than the person. So it comes. This all comes very simple. Present moment. Present moment awareness is. You're aware of whatever is in the present moment. Sensory perception, feelings, occasional thoughts. And you're aware of yourself. Very important. You're aware of yourself, but not the self. That's the person. But you're aware of yourself as the awareness itself, as the consciousness itself. You can sense your beingness, so to speak. You can sense your presence. You can sense the I am, which has nothing to do with your history. Whether your personal history was. Was a wonderful success story or great disaster doesn't matter anymore. There's something that transcends. If your personal history was a great success story, you're probably not motivated yet to enter presence because you are satisfied by superficial things until they collapse, because they will. If your personal history is a disaster, then there's a better chance of awakening. But for most people, it's a mixed bag. Bad things have happened, good things have happened. But wasn't that great? It's very limiting. So you go deeper. So you become aware of being aware. This sounds a little weird. You sense yourself as being as a consciousness, the presence. I am the presence I am. And there's no time in it. It's nothing to do with whatever happened to you in your past, nothing to do with it, and nothing to do with what's going to happen to you in the future. And there's enormous power there. It's the power of life itself. It's the Tao, whatever you want to call it. And so. And then gradually you live more in that. You become more rooted in that dimension. And that's the shift that is needed. Thank you, everybody. Stay present. That's all it ultimately matters. Your state of consciousness is the most important thing. It's not an ego thing at all. Your state of you, your entire world that you experience is mediated through your state of consciousness. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Eckhart.

Thank you.

And thank you, all of you, for being with us this evening. I wanted to invite you again, for those of you who are joining us a little later in the program, to Eckhart's new online program. If you want to continue this teaching with Eckhart. The program will be beginning in several weeks and we hope you'll join us in a community all over the world. And tonight when you sign up, after you enroll, you'll also receive a special bonus teaching called Living Free from Stress and Anxiety. And it includes three of Epgart's most popular audio programs. And we wanted to give everyone the opportunity to listen to these special teachings and prepare for the upcoming program with Eckhart, where he'll be guiding us through the doorways into presence. In addition to receiving a special discount on the program, you'll also receive these special bonus teachings when you enroll today. And I hope you had a really, really good experience here tonight. It was so wonderful being with all of you. And you can find out more about the program and register@eckharttolle.com. thank you so much for joining us this evening.